They won’t pull out
troops from Iraq and they won’t vote for any strategy that calls for
immediate removal of United States occupation forces. Of course it took
a Republican to put forth an “out-now” resolution, which was supposedly
intended to split the Democrats. But the vote in the House late Friday
didn’t slice a wedge in the Democrat Party -- on the contrary, it united
them behind a bloody and illegal occupation in Iraq. Of course, this
could well have been the Republican strategy all along.

Only three Democrats voted
in support of the Republicans’ Iraq withdraw proposal: Representatives
Wexler, Serrano and McKinney. And their point was well made. They want
the troops home now and they don’t care who wrote up the legislation or
the reasons why they did it. It was the right move to make. If US troops
were pulled out tomorrow, Iraq would be a safer place for all of us.

A handful of House
Democrats did take the podium to express their seething disgust over the
Republicans’ political feat. Talk is cheap, however. Votes are what
count. If there ever were a subject that should gash the thin-skinned
Democratic Party, it would be the Iraq war. But as the House vote
verified, the Democrats don’t want US troops home now, let alone in six
months as Rep. John Murtha proposed last Thursday.

Murtha, a veteran war hawk
who championed the Iraq invasion from its inception, announced at a
teary-eyed press conference that he wished to withdraw the nearly
160,000 US troops in Iraq “at the earliest predictable date.” Recent
polls indicate that the majority of Americans agree with Murtha’s call
to pull out US forces, which wasn’t even close to an “out-now”
proposition. Regardless, the Democrats took cover as Rep. Murtha began
making headlines with his remarks.

“I don't support immediate
withdrawal,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid released in a statement
following Murtha’s call to exit troops.

“Mr. Murtha speaks for
himself,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi gasped as reporters asked
for her takes on the matter.

The Democratic leadership
in Washington was making it crystal clear that they won’t be cutting and
running from Iraq but from Murtha and the movement that prompted his
change of heart.

The Democrats, however, are
proving to be the Avian Flu of the antiwar movement. They are willing to
divvy out just enough fodder in hopes of luring in the antiwar crowd,
and then they strike.

First it was the Senate
lockout, which ended up being nothing more than a charade masked as
opposition. After all, debating pre-war intel is a non-issue -- what we
need to be worried about is how to bring our troops home now. But
as we well know, the Democrats have neither a plan nor the desire to
bring them home anytime soon.

Senator John Kerry and even
Donald Rumsfeld are calling for a reduction of US troops after December.
But the troops they both want to bring home are the ones they sent over
to monitor Iraq elections in the first place. Pulling them out afterward
was the plan all along. The Democrats, like the Republicans, still
believe there is a mission to be accomplished here. What this mission
is, nobody knows.

The US presence in Iraq is
only inflaming more anger against American foreign policy in the Middle
East and worldwide. It’s only increasing potential threats against the
United States. Surely, it can’t be democracy the Democrats and
Republicans want. If that were the case, they’d have yanked out troops
months ago as Iraqis have overwhelmingly declared that’s what they
desire. No, this ongoing mission is only about one thing: smug American
pride. President Bush and his Democratic enablers can’t admit that this
war was waged for no reason whatsoever. They can’t admit that all the
lives lost have been for nothing.

The Democrats in
Washington, despite sporadic glimmers of hope, is a feckless lot. So
don’t take their bait. Like all the shrapnel and bullets flying through
the air in Iraq -- the Democratic Party is a killer.

Joshua Frank is the author of
Left Out!: How Liberals Helped Reelect George W. Bush, published by
Common Courage Press. You can order a copy at a discounted rate at
www.brickburner.org. Joshua can be reached at
Joshua@brickburner.org.